Rebuttal of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) propaganda
Australian Macedonian Advisory Council
June 12, 2009
This is an excerpt from Mrs. Alexovska recent article with the hilarious title "Greece: Hey Bro! Will you sign my petition? We're trying to erase Macedonian ethnicity", but I doubt whether Mrs. Alexovska would ever have asked such a question if she was aware of what the aforementioned historians actually wrote.
Starting with Eugene Borza, what makes the greatest impression to everyone that had read at least some pages from his work in regards to the ethnicity of ancient Macedonians, is that nowhere does Mr. Borza take an explicit stance on this subject, i.e. to clarify whether he considers ancient Macedonians as Greeks or not. This is more eloquently depicted in the following abstract from his "In the shadow of Olympus",1992,page 78:
http://books.google.com/books?id=614pd07OtfQC&pg=PA78
We have seen (Chapter 3) that the "Makedones" or "highlanders" of mountainous western Macedo¬nia may have been derived from northwest Greek stock. That is, northwest Greece provided a pool of Indo-European speakers of proto-Greek from which emerged the tribes who were later known by different names as they established their regional identities in separate parts of the country. Thus the Macedonians may have been related to those peoples who at an earlier time migrated south to become the historical Dorians, and to other Pindus tribes who were the ancestors of the Epirotes or Molossians. If it were known that Macedonian was a proper dialect of Greek, like the dialects spoken by Dorians and Mo¬lossians, we would be on much firmer ground in this hypothesis.
Eugene Borza is more assertive when he speaks about the modern history of Macedonia, and more specifically about the ethnicities that dwelt in Macedonia during medieval and modern times. He does not mention any "ethnic Macedonians" (of the FYROM type) as inhabitants of Macedonia till early 20th century:
"In the shadow of Olympus",page 9
http://books.google.com/books?id=614pd07OtfQC&pg=PA9
Perhaps nowhere else in Europe had the centuries left such a multiethnic residue as in Macedonia. The region abounded in en¬claves and admixtures of Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Jews, Turks, Al¬banians, Vlachs, other minority groups, those of mixed ancestry, and those of uncertain or even capricious nationality (the salad "macedoine" is well named). The very definition of nationality was unset¬tled. Did one's ethnic identity depend upon language, religion, adher¬ence to a local political faction, or loyalty to a foreign state? Not only could the western European observers not agree, but in a region where some Jews practiced Islam and some Bulgarian-speakers regarded themselves as Greek, it was apparent that even many of the residents were uncertain what the basis of nationality should be.
"The Macedonian redux",1999,page 252
http://books.google.com/books?id=0lLc_ItQmQcC&pg=PA252
During medieval and modern limes. Macedo¬nia was known as a Balkan region inhabited by ethnic Greeks, Albanians. Vlachs, Serbs, Bulgarians, Jews, and Turks. With the collapse of Ottoman rule in Europe in the early twentieth century, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Serbs fought for control of Macedonia, and when the final treaty arrangements were made in the 1920s, the Macedonian region had been absorbed into three modern states: Greece, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia
Furthermore, Eugene Borza rejects every connection between the inhabitants of FYROM, (whom he labels as "so-called Macedonians), a newly emergent people without history", and the ancient Macedonians.
"The Macedonian redux",page 255
http://books.google.com/books?id=0lLc_ItQmQcC&pg=PA255
Modern Slavs, both Bulgarians and Macedonians, cannot establish a link with antiquity, as the Slavs entered the Balkans centuries after the demise of the ancient Macedonian kingdom. Only the most radical Slavic factions—mostly émigrés in the United States, Canada, and Australia—even attempt to establish a connection to antiquity.
"The Macedonian redux" page 259
http://books.google.com/books?id=0lLc_ItQmQcC&pg=PA259
On the other hand, the Macedonians are a newly emergent people in search of a past to help legitimize their precarious present as they attempt to establish their singular identity in a Slavic world dominated historically by Serbs and Bulgarians….The twentieth-century development of a Macedonian ethnicity, and its recent evolution into independent statehood following the collapse of the Yugoslav state in 1991, has followed a rocky road. In order to survive the vicissitudes of Balkan history and politics, the Macedonians, who have had no history, need one.
"The Macedonian redux" page 260
http://books.google.gr/books?id=0lLc_ItQmQcC&pg=PA260
Their own so-called Macedonian ethnicity had evolved for more than a century, and thus it seemed natural and appropriate for them to call the new nation "Macedonia" and to attempt to provide some cultural references to bolster ethnic survival.
As for Ernst Badian, although he considers ancient Macedonians as non-Greeks, he also admits that during the Hellenistic Age (323-146 BC) (the period after Alexander The Great´s rule) Macedonians - regardless of their real origin were considered as Greeks - indistinguishable from the rest of the Greeks. This quote from Badian is cited in a book written by Mr. Gandeto, a person undoubtedly very familiar to Mrs. Alexovska (both FYROM propagandists).
"Ancient Macedonians: Differences Between the Ancient Macedonians and the Ancient Greeks" 2002,page 197
http://books.google.com/books?id=L6xBsaLlFyYC&pg=PA197
We have now become accustomed to regarding Macedonians as "northern Greeks" and, in extreme cases, to hearing Alexander's conquests described as in essence Greek conquests. The former certainly became true, in Greek consciousness in the course of the Hellenistic age; the latter may be argued to be true "ex post facto".
Therefore, even if we accept for the sake of the argument that Macedonians were originally not a Greek people, no one doubts they were totally hellenized in 3th-2th centuries BC and were considered as Greeks, fully integrated into the Greek world for almost 7-8 centuries, till the arrival of the first Slavic tribes in the Balkans. If we again accept, that some Macedonians mixed with the newly arrived Slavs in 6th and 7th AD centuries, it´s conspicuous and self-evident they were subsequently absorbed and assimilated by them in every aspect - ethnological, cultural and linguistic. Thus, doesn´t it seem absurd the claim that while their ancient national consciousness and sense of being ethnic Macedonians ´disappeared´ for at least 7-8 centuries, its last forgotten traces (if there were still left any such), all of sudden managed to reawake and reemerge after their mix with the Slavs, instead of being totally wiped out?
And what about those Macedonians like my ancestors that were not Slavicized, but continued on from antiquity till today to bear the same Greek cultural and linguistic features with their ancient ancestors, to reside in the same territory and to self identify as Greeks? Are they not legitimately allowed to call themselves ´Macedonians´ and consider themselves as descendants of ancient Macedonians, or should they first get Slavicized and start speaking Slavic?! Mrs. Alexovska claims that Greece "stole Macedonian soil from her people" and that "till the Balkan wars there weren´t any Greeks living in Macedonia"! Both assertions are blatant lies, as the existence of a considerable Greek population in Macedonia during the Ottoman time was recorded by many foreign travellers and authors who visited that region. Instead, the so-called ´Macedonian ethnicity´ is absent from these very records or rather mentioned as Bulgarian. Greeks in Ottoman times were the predominant ethnicity in that part of Macedonia that was later included within the boundaries of the Greek state, as William Martin Leake (an English geographer who came across the Balkans in 1835) informs us in his "Travels in northern Greece". He mentions in pages 147,159,171,173,184,198,
200,201,226,234,242,243,248,259,261,270,273,284,291,299,332 of his work the Greek inhabitants of the Macedonian regions of Chalkidike, Serres, Thessaloniki, Veria, Naousa,
Katerini, Edessa, Kastoria, Kozani e.t.c while he refers to the ancestors of today´s people from FYROM as Bulgarians:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Nx0GAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA147
Another first-hand account of the Greeks of Macedonia and their folk traditions and customs that undoubtedly constitute an irrefutable proof of their ancient Macedonian Greek origin is the legendary "Macedonian Folklore" of George Frederick Abbott, 1903. The author states in the preface:
"The present volume contains the results of some researches into the folklore of the Greek-speaking parts of Macedonia, carried on in 1900-1 by the author under the auspices of the Electors to the Prendergast Studentship and of the Governing Body of Emmanuel College"
http://books.google.com/books?id=M7o8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PP13
http://www.archive.org/stream/macedonianfolklo00abborich
In pages 1-2 he mentions some of the Greek-speaking parts of Macedonia where he collected his material from - all of them are included in today´s Greek province of Macedonia, with the exception of Melnik which is located in Bulgaria:
"The materials which I collected at Salonica and Cavalla were mostly gleaned from the peasants, who resort to those centres from the environs for commercial or religious purposes, and only in very few cases from native citizens.My real harvest was gathered in the thoroughly provin¬cial towns of Serres and Melenik, the townships of Demir Hissar and Nigrita, and the villages adjacent thereto; as well as in places of lesser note, such as Vassilika and Sochos in the Chalcidic Trident, the settlements in its three prongs, Provista in the valley of the Struma, Pravi in the neighbourhood of Philippi, and some of the country around, and to the south of, Drama."
http://books.google.com/books?id=M7o8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1
We can read in pages 18-19,about the custom of the "swallow-song" which is performed every 1st of March in Macedonia and some other parts of Greece:
"On the first of March the boys are in the habit of constructing a wooden image of the bird, revolving on a pivot, which they adorn with flowers, and with it in their hands they go round the houses in groups a-gooding, that is singing a song of congratulations in return for which they receive various gifts. The following is a specimen of the Swallow-song in use among the inhabitants of Liakkovikia, a village in south¬eastern Macedonia.....
The custom of going about with the swallow existed among the ancient Greeks (χελιδονίζειν:αγείρειν τή χελιδόνι), and one of the swallow-songs popular in antiquity has fortunately come down to us."
http://books.google.com/books?id=M7o8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA18
In pages 20-21 we will find another custom in Macedonia closely related to a counterpart ancient Greek custom:
"This idea connects the Macedonian custom with the swallow custom already discussed, and the appeal to the crow is probably due to an adaptation of the tooth-ceremony to some child's crow-song correspond¬ing to the swallow-song, a hypothesis which becomes more than probable when we consider that such a song (κορώνισμα) was actually known in antiquity and is mentioned by Athenaeus in connection with the swallow-song (χελιδόνισμα)."
http://books.google.com/books?id=M7o8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA20
While in pages 193-194 and 203 we see the closely resemblance of some funeral customs between ancient and modern Macedonian Greeks:
"In some districts, Charon´s penny is still put under the tongue or in the lap of the deceased. This is, of course, a survival of the Hellenic custom of providing the dead with the ferry-boat fee, and has no direct relationship with the similar practice of Western peasants."
http://books.google.com/books?id=M7o8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA194
"The funeral feast of the modern Greeks may reasonably be regarded as a lineal descendand of the classic περίδειπνον,by Homer called τάφος,and the lustration preceding it as a survival of the ablution which in ancient times took place before the "carrying out" of the corpse (εκφορά).Εven the excessive indulgence in funeral pleasures can be shown as a matter of ancient tradition".
http://www.archive.org/stream/macedonianfolklo00abborich page 203
Of course the most popular figures in the tradition of the Macedonian Greeks were who else, Alexander the Great and Philip, as we read in pages 279-280:
"Everything that savours of antiquity is by the Macedonian peasant attributed to the two great kings of his country.His songs and traditions, of which he is vastly and justly proud are often described as having come down "from the times of Philip and Alexander-and Herakles",a comprehensive period to which all remnants of the past are allotted with undiscriminating impartiality.
On the way from Drama to Cavala,and a little back from the road,stand the massive relics of an ancient gate, facing the ruins of Philippi.This pile is known to the people by the name of " Alexander the Great's Palace" (το παλάτι του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου)
At Demir Hissar, or "The Iron Castle" on the Salonica-Serres railway line there are some remnants of an old citadel,or fortress (κάστρο) overlooking the ravine between the flank of which the town is wedged. These ruins are assigned to King Philipp.
The two solitary rocks in the plain of Serres,already noted as the "Dragon's Quoits," are by the inhabitants of Nigrita called the "Quoits of Alexander the Great" (πέτραις του Μεγάλου Αλεξάνδρου),who is supposed to have thrown them.
Again, near the village of Stavros, or "The Cross," close to the eastern coast of the Chalcidic Peninsula, and a little to the north of the site where Stageira, Aristotle's birthplace, is generally located, there rises a mountain, unnamed in maps, but known to the peasantry as "Alexander's Mount " (το βουνό του Αλεξάνδρου,or less correctly,της Αλεξάνδρας)."
http://www.archive.org/stream/macedonianfolklo00abborich page 279
http://books.google.com/books?id=M7o8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA280
And how come that "ethnic Macedonians" were nowhere recorded in all the Geographical Encyclopaedias of 19th century? They are absent from the list of the ethnicities that dwelled in the European part of the Ottoman empire,in page 58 of "L´empire de Turquie" by Xavier Heuschling,1860. There are mentioned "Bulgares, Serbes,Bosniaques,Herzégovinens,autres branches slaves,Valaques et Moldo-Valaques,Albanais,Ottomans d'origine asiatique,Grecs,
Arméniens,Juifs,Zingares (Bohémiens),Tatares" but not any "ethnic Macedonians".
http://books.google.com/books?id=x_MOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA58
The same goes for the account in pages 272- 273 of "Turkey and its resources", by David Urquhart, 1833.There are mentioned "Osmanlis (Turkish race and language, all Mussulmans), Greeks (Hellenic race and language, all Christians),Albanians(Skipertar race and language, two-third Mussulmans) Sclavonic race and dialects (one-third Mussulmans,-Bosniacs, Tulemans, Pomacs);two-thirds Christians of the Greek church (Servians, Bulgarians);of the Latin (Mirdites Croatians) occupying the tract to the north of 41°,Vlachi,(Greek church),other races—Gypsies, Jews, Armenians and Franks."Ethnic Macedonians" are absent again while the author mentioned 300.000 Greeks in Macedonia.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZppNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA272
From "Nationalities of Europe" vol. II by R.G. Latham,1863,pages 106-107:
"Mixed Districts.—Macedonia.—The Greek and Bulgarian Districts-—The Macedonian Koniarids.—The Yuruks.
And now Macedonia comes under notice. When the Greek Revolution (of which the present work has hitherto taken cognizance only so far as it affected that part of the Hellenic world which constitutes the present kingdom of Greece) broke out, the spirit of independence stirred as strongly in the north ns in the south. Emeutes, in Thessaly and Macedonia, developed themselves into definite insurrections with their general details much the same as those of Livadia and the Morea."
"The most Greek district in Macedonia is the Chalchidice Peninsula"
"Another Greek district is in the parts about Verria (Berrhea), Niausta, and Vodhena; where, though in contact with Bulgarians and Turks, the Greeks are in so decided a majority as to give a definite Greek character to the districts. Niausta, indeed, was one of the towns which notably suffered for the part it took in the Revolution. Between the Greeks, however, and the sea, the country is Bulgarian; and in some of the villages of the frontier there is both a mixture of blood and an interchange of charac¬teristics."
http://books.google.com/books?id=LyeF22ddaEQC&pg=PA106
"The Baptist Missionary magazine" vol. XIX,1839,on the ethnic composition of various Macedonian regions.Page 164:
"Jenidge-Vodhena-Mount Bermius
In this part of the country is found the Bulgarian, as well as the Greek Christian...Our host was a Greek—his wife a Bulgarian. "
http://books.google.com/books?id=k09Ij3Lnyu4C&pg=PA164
Page 166:
"The tract south of the Balkan and east of the Pindus, includ¬ing the ancient Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, is called Roumelia.The people are Turks and Greeks,and speak their respective languages.In the north and north-western parts of this territory are also many Bulgarians. West of the Pindus and south of Her¬zegovina is Albania, and the language of the country is Greek and Albanian."
http://books.google.com/books?id=k09Ij3Lnyu4C&pg=PA166
A first-hand account of the ethnicities that dwelt in the Macedonian region of Serres, from "The Missionary Herald",vol. XLVII,1851.Pages 258-259:
"Mr. Parsons has recently made an excursion to Seres, which lies some fifty miles north-east of Salonica, for the purpose of attending the great fair annually held in that city…Mr. Parsons spent the night in a village at the foot of the nearest range of mountains. A village in Macedonia," he says, "is a collection of mud huts, one slory high, with tiled or thatched roofs, having generally but one room, and that partly underground. The Greek villages have a church, the Turkish a mosque….Our host was a Bulgarian"
"We found ourselves in the midst of a crowd of Jews from all quarters. It was a good place for a Jewish missionary; but my knowledge of the language was so limited that it was with difficulty that I could get access to them. There were also great crowds of Bulgarians, Servi¬ans, Greeks and Turks. Hohannes had access to all through the Turkish language."
http://books.google.com/books?id=KcEPAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA258
Page 260:
"Seres is the chief city of a populous and fertile valley, and hence our brethren feel that in the progress of the truth in that part of the world, it will become a very important post. Mr. Parsons says of it:
It has now probably fifteen thousand Greeks, with many churches, ten or twelve thousand Turks and eighteen mosques, and two hundred families of Jews, with one synagogue."
http://books.google.com/books?id=KcEPAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA260
Greeks were also to be found even in towns that belong today in FYROM, like Istib, as Warington Smyth, the author of "A year with the Turks" confirmed in 1854:
"we entered Istib,a town boasting five mosques with minarehs, and a population of 6000 or 8000 souls, Turks, Greeks, Bulgarians, and a few Wallacks."
http://books.google.com/books?id=4jkBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA203
The "ethnic Macedonians" were absent again,as they were absent from the list of the ethnicities that dwelt in the European part of the Ottoman empire,in page 275.There are mentioned "Turks, Albanians-Arnaouts or Bosniacs, Hertzegovinians, Croats, Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians,Wallachians,Moldavians,Zinzars,Greeks,Armenians,Jews,Gypsies and various" but not any Macedonians of FYROM type:
http://books.google.com/books?id=4jkBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA275
Monastir, (modern Bitola in FYROM),another Macedonian city with Greek population, while "ethnic Macedonians" were non-existent. From "Journals of a landscape painter in Albania" by Edward Lear,1851,pages 50-51:
"The Turks resident in Monastir are for the most part either military or officials : Greeks and Bulgarians form the majo¬rity of the inhabitants. Albanians there are few, excepting guards or exiles (Monastir is a frequent place of banishment for rebel Beys) : of Jews a vast number."
http://books.google.com/books?id=8yopAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA50
Another eyewitness who visited Macedonia in 1854 and found Greeks and Bulgarians instead ethnic Macedonians as the dominant races was John Murray, who wrote the "Handbook for travelers in Turkey".From page 129:
"It is to be observed that the Christian Slavonians in Thrace and Macedonia, to the south of the Balkan, generally speak the Bulgarian dialect, and are called Bulgarians."
http://books.google.com/books?id=bLgNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA129
Page 130:
"But Albania, hessaly,and Macedonia, where the majority of the population is Greek in those great elements of nationality, blood, religion, and language, are described in the Handbook for Greece."
Henry Holland visited Thessaloniki in 1813 and while he passed from some Macedonian districts near the Thermaic Gulf, he observed that: "On the north¬eastern skirts of the mountain are several towns and villages, some of considerable size, and almost entirely peopled by Greeks."
"Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia,during the years 1812 and 1813" page 298
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ul0GAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA298
When he arrived at Thessaloniki, he described its population as follows, in page 319:
"The population is composed of four distinct classes, Turks, Greeks, Jews, and Franks; the last comprising all those inhabitants who are natives of the other parts of .Europe, whether English, French, Germans, or Italians."
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ul0GAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA319
We challenge Mrs. Alexovska, Mr. Stefov, Mr. Gandeto and any other FYROM propagandist to find us at least one single mention of a distinct "Macedonian ethnicity" by any foreign traveler, journalist, author etc who visited Macedonia prior to 1870 and recorded the various ethnicities he found there dwelling. If the "Macedonian ethnicity" existed for centuries in the Balkans and constituted the majority of the population in Macedonia (as all the FYROM propagandists believe), how is it that it was never recorded during the 19th century by any eyewitness who came across Macedonia and left a written account describing the various ethnicities of whom its population consisted? Why is it that till 1911, neither a distinct Macedonian ethnicity was recorded by the American Immigrant Commission, nor a distinct Macedonian language, separate from the Bulgarian one? These passages below are from the "Abstracts of reports of the Immigration Commission: with conclusions and recommendations and views of the minority" by William Paul Dillingham and William Stiles,1911
http://www.archive.org/stream/reportsofimmigra01unitrich
Page 222:
"Of Bulgarian dialects the most important to mention is the so-called Mace¬donian.Some have claimed that there is an independent Macedonian lan¬guage and therefore race or people. But this would appear to be one of the patriotic misrepresentations not unknown amongst the partisan philologists of this region."
Page 282:
"Occasionally an immigrant from Turkey insists that he is a Macedonian rather than a Turk, Bulgarian, Greek or Albanian: he may be a Tsintsar, Vlach,or Aromuni, names applied to those who speak the Macedonian dialect of the Roumanian."
Of course the conclusion that Bulgarian and so-called Macedonian was one in the same was drawn many decades earlier by prominent Slavists:
"According to Kopitar, the eminent Slavic philologist, the Bulgarian dialect, spoken in Bulgaria and Macedonia by about half a million of the population,has of all the Slavic dialects been most affected by the course of time, both in its grammatical structure and in its whole character."
"The Biblical Repository" by Edward Robinson,1834,page 400
http://books.google.com/books?id=7oAXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA400
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